Dry-dock.



'No. 721,222. 'PATENTBD FEB. 24, 190.3. f .2 'J. F. OROURKE.

DRY DOCK.

upmouxofi FILED AUG. 20, 1902'.

N0 MODEL. 2 SHEBTS BHEIIT 1.

WITN I 2 VINVENTOR W 722222 770121 f I BY v ATTORNEY PATEN'I'ED FEB. 24, 1903. J. F. OROURK'EI.

DRY DOCK. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 20, 1902.

2 SHEETS- SHEET 2.

"H0 MODEL.

' INVENTOR ai Wan/q,

\ WITNESSES: J

BY a ATTORNEY THE humus mgns co. mum. msmuuron. n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN F. OROURKE, OF YORK, N. Y.

DRY-Dock.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 721,222, dated February 24, 1903. Application filed August 20, 1902. Serial No. 120,376- (No model-l T0 aZZ whom it may concern} Be it'known that I, JOHN F. OROURKE, a citizen of the United States,'residing in the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, county and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Dry-Docks, of which the following is such a full, clear, and

exact description as will enable others skilled;

in the art to which this invention most nearly appertains to understand and use the same when taken in connection. with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of the dock, showing my improvement. Fig.2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a top view of the dock, showing the doors to the chamber below; Fig.4 is a top View showing a chamber of less area than the dock. Heretofore and before this my invention great difficulty has been experienced in making and repairing vessels in dry-docks on account of' the distance from the vessel in the dock to the machinery and machine-tools now so necessary for the proper, expeditious, and

economical work and so universally used in machine-shops. To overcome this objection and to have the machinery and machine-tools of the machine-shop close at hand for use on the vessel occupying the dry-dock, I construct beneath the dry-dock proper a chamber, machine shop, or room and provide -doors or openings from the roof of the chamber or machine-shop communicating directly with the dry-doclgwhich doors'or openings areprovided with suitable water-tight covers or doors to keep the water out of the chamber when the dry-dock is full of water. The chamber may be arranged to be occupied only when the water is out of the dry-dock, when it will be unnecessary to have any other opening than those through the floor of the dry-dock. This construction will be found to be especially advantageous if the dry-dock is in a rocky formation, where it would be advisable to excavate only a portion of the space under the dry-dock. For convenience in the use of the chamber at all timesit is desirable to have it provided with one or more tunnels communicating with a shaft or shafts to the outer atmosphere without passing through the drydock, so that access may be had to the chamher at all times by the employees, so that the material tobe used mayreadily and at alltirnes be taken into the chamber and for the purposes of ventilation. Such construction is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, where the machine-shop or chamber is marked M, communicating by the tunnel T, through the extended wall of the dry-dock, with a shaft S, open at the top to the outer air. The shaft S 'may be round, square, or in any other conplish this, I prefer to operate the machineryby electric motors, compressed air, or other power, the generating machinery for which may be located outside the chamber and drydock.

It is manifest that great advantage will be had by the close proximity of the machinery tothe work to be performed, and as the machineryand supplies necessary for the repairs to the vessel in the dry-dock may be all made ready before and during the time the vessel'is being put in thedjry-dock and the machine-tools are brought quickly into use 'the saving in time is very great.

When the vessel, as is often the case, is nearly the width of the dry-dock, the possibility of getting at and supplying machinery to repair the bottom of .the vessel without passing through the narrow space between theve'ssel and the side wall of the dry-dock and without lowering the materials and machinery from the great height of the side walls of the dry-dock is a very great advantage.

In building dry-docks I generally prefer to sink caissons in a continuous line around the edge of the proposed dry-dock for the wall by pneumatic process connecting the several caissons together, so as to make a continuous wall, as shown in Letters Patent No. 678,582, issued to me July 16, 1901, and then to dig out the earth contained in the area within the walls making the space for the dry-dock. When, however, the dock is to have a lower chamber or room, as described in this application, I continue sinking the caissons until they are low enough to make space sufficient for the chamber or room and the dry-dock, when the earth within the walls is excavated and the proper foundations arranged to support the columns, which in turn support the roof of the lower chamber or floor of the dry-dock. It is to be observed that the principal weight of the vessel in the drydock comes on these columns, and they must be correspondingly strong.

If the dry-dock is built in a rock formation no floor to the lower chamber or room will be necessary other than such as may be required to stop the flow of the water through the veins of the rock. When, however, it is not in a rocky formation, it may be necessary to put in a concrete floor of hydraulic or other cement to make the chamber water-tight.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

vided for the vessel, communicating doors connecting the chamber with the dry-dock, and an entrance to the chamber from the outside, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN F. OROURKE.

Witnesses:

FRANK L. MUELLER, J. ADDISON KYNOR. 

